Chapter 101

The weather was hot, and the crops were growing well. The residence of the green monkeys had expanded twice in size due to the birth of new residents. Every day, delicious food and drinks were provided for the green monkey mothers, causing some of their wildness to be worn away. Even if the cage was opened to let them out for a few steps, they wouldn't wander far; when hungry, they would linger near the cage.

The monkey babies were still not able to move much on their own, snuggling in the leaf nests made by Cloudy during both day and night. Titus had been busy fishing outside these days, and a large number of fish had appeared in several small lakes in the rainforest. Cloudy had also gone fishing with them once, but her way of fishing was too elegant. Unlike Titus and the others who would directly jump into the lake to fiercely battle insects or fish, she could only stir the water by the lakeside with a wooden cage or soak her feet.

Moreover, the nights in the rainforest were becoming "brighter," with a very large and bright moon shining without any trees blocking its light.

"..." Cloudy lay on a large slab of stone. It was nighttime, and she had not slept inside but on a stone slab outside. It had been increasingly difficult for her to fall asleep lately, not only because of the high temperature but also due to the air being so humid that it could be wrung out like water. After nightfall, the sounds of insects in the rainforest were as loud as a convoy of trucks entering.

In addition to the sounds of insects, occasionally, one could also hear the howls of the wild people communicating.

"Ugh..." Cloudy tossed and turned on the stone slab, her mind empty from the heat. She was finding it increasingly unbearable; the weather was too hot, feeling like 50 degrees during the day and 40 degrees at night. She was restless every day, and to alleviate her symptoms, the Matriarch even mixed hallucinogenic pollen in water for her to drink or wash her face with. While this method somewhat worked by temporarily numbing her senses and making her feel better, it was not a perfect solution.

Unable to sleep again due to the heat that night, she now fully understood why newborns were so fearful of the rainy season. Damn it, if this 50-degree weather was considered normal, people would definitely die in the next rain!

Cloudy lay gasping for breath on the large stone slab at the door, her eyes seeing stars. The nights were also getting shorter; they used to last 8-10 hours, but now it was only about 6 hours. Her menstrual cycle had also been absent for a long time, and she couldn't tell if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

At dawn, Titus and the others returned with a full load of insects. Knowing that Cloudy disliked bugs, Titus placed everything on the square before hastily washing his hands and running back home. As he reached the doorstep, he saw Cloudy lying limp on the stone slab at the entrance, making whimpering sounds.

He didn't dare to pick up Cloudy, only managing to pull her hand and dragging her into the house as if dragging a hunted animal, not daring to place her on the bed, leaving Cloudy where she was.
Lying on the stone floor, Cloudy was trying to ease her pain. Hastily grabbing some nearby leaves, Titus frantically waved them to create a breeze. "Are you okay? After sunset, will Cloudy go to sleep?"

Though Cloudy was awake and could see Titus, her mind was completely fogged. She couldn't tell if her eyes were open or closed, feeling limp all over. After a few dazed minutes, she sensed a moist touch on her lips, slightly cold, probably Titus giving her water.

"Mmm...”

She couldn't make out what was being said; she just felt hot and couldn't sleep well. Feeling stifled inside, the breeze from the leaves wasn't refreshing at all; it just displaced the hot air on her body to another spot. "I want to soak in water..." Titus was also hot, crouching beside her like a burning monster.

"Can Cloudy walk by herself?" Titus grew anxious. He was too scared to hold Cloudy; after Cloudy fainted from the heat a couple of days ago, he tried to carry her once, and Cloudy let out a sound he had never heard before... a very painful howl. He almost thought Cloudy was going to die again.

"I can't." Cloudy panted on the ground. "Don't carry me either, I'll crawl over there." Unable to think clearly, she stopped speaking the local language, lost in her own thoughts.

Crawling over there was obviously impossible; after wriggling a few times on the ground, she passed out from exhaustion. This might have been the most uncomfortable sleep she ever had... and the most distressing dream she ever had.

She dreamt of being in a job interview at the company while simultaneously taking a college entrance exam, a whole other level of feeling hot and sweaty. The interviewer and Cloudy's high school math teacher looked exactly alike, constantly asking her, "How do you evaluate the contributions you've made in the settlement? Have you been most useful in the team?"

"What do you feel about staying in the settlement forever? Do you have thoughts of changing jobs?"

As the interviewer kept questioning her, the Matriarch walked back and forth behind her, holding dozens of babies stuck together. To avoid the questions and the Matriarch, she earnestly looked at the test paper, only to find Titus' name written all over it... not in letters, just a bunch of strange lines, yet somehow she knew those strange lines were Titus' name.

She picked up the pen, crying as she forced herself to find the questions among the strange lines and answered them one by one. But at the final essay question, she had to stop. The title of the question was crystal clear, not printed on the paper but directly imprinted in her mind: Would you give up Titus if you had the chance to go back to modern times?

This was the trap question she set for herself, like how ordinary people daydream about how to distribute a big lottery win. She had no chance of returning to modern times, but she enjoyed setting herself up for it.
Something as collateral, this is a subconscious behavior. If you could exchange the most important thing for something you desire, would you be willing?

Saying unwilling is false, saying willing is not a hundred percent willing. At this point, she felt that Titus was even more important than most modern things... The dream became more intense, she heard Titus' voice coming from outside the interview room, shouting something, like asking her to eat, or like a roar while hunting.

Perhaps hearing a comforting voice, the air around was not as hot, and it felt like rainwater rolling over her skin. She looked out of the interview room window, a familiar tall dark shadow swaying back and forth, Titus wearing overalls carrying a suspicious rectangular milky-white device on his shoulder: "Cloudy! Cloudy! I bought an air conditioner!"

"——! ——!!" In extreme confusion, Cloudy suddenly opened her eyes wide. Along with awakening, there was a feeling of water and... coolness?

Clear water flowed from her back, wrapping around her body, and for a moment her head didn't feel as heavy. Waking up in the heat, her brain processed information a bit slower, at first she thought she was placed in a water tank in the settlement, but the environment here was clearly darker... yet there was still light around? A cold, eerie blue-green light.

Was she dead? Is this the underworld? If so, it could explain why it's so cool here.

The sound of the flowing water became clearer, like a gentle breeze on the grasslands flowing around Cloudy, gradually calming her brain tormented by nightmares. The space here was very limited, a long cylindrical passage, less than two meters high, and very damp everywhere.

The water wasn't deep, even lying down, it only reached just below her earlobes. The cave was covered with strange filamentous plants, possibly a type of moss, emitting a faint blue-green light in the dim environment.

She couldn't see any light outside from front to back, nor any opening resembling an exit. She should have been panicking like being buried alive, but it was too cool in this narrow cave... She ignored it and lay back down, closing her eyes until she faintly heard the footsteps mixed in the water flow.

She opened her eyes and saw a terrifying wild man's face soaked in the eerie blue-green light above her: "..."

The good news was she wouldn't be frightened by Titus' inhuman appearance again, in any environment. So she just blinked: "Where is this? It's so comfortable."

Titus grinned, flapping his ears... because the cave was too narrow for him, he was crawling on all fours inside: "I thought this place would make you comfortable. That's why I brought you here. Yesterday, Cloudy, you just... closed your eyes... I'm sorry."
"Scared."

Yesterday? Did she just sleep all day long?

"I can't, I've been here the whole time." Just as Cloudy was thinking, Titus suddenly started sneezing. Through the dim light of the plants in the cave, Cloudy could see that Titus seemed uncomfortable. "I'll go outside. Cloudy, get some rest and come find me outside."

Indeed, the temperature in this cave was too cool, plus there was water flowing through... It was too cold for Titus and the others to stay for long. "Hurry, let's get out!!" Cloudy turned around and got up faster than Titus, reaching out to push his shoulder towards the exit. "I'll go out with you, to see where this is."

The two of them retreated one after the other, after about ten meters, a ninety-degree turn appeared in the cave, and then the entire passage was almost vertical. Cloudy couldn't climb out on her own, so she had to lie on Titus's back and let him carry her out.

This vertical passage was also about ten meters long, but for Titus, it only took a few climbs to get out. The moment they left the cave entrance, Cloudy felt a few tons of hot air pressing down on her... The sunlight outside was strong, probably around noon. After coming out of the cave, Titus kept sneezing, running several laps in the sunlight before recovering.

Cloudy took the opportunity to observe the surrounding terrain. After a few minutes, she noticed something was not quite right... Wasn't this the top of the cliff where the settlement was located?! The trees were sparse here, and she could see the edge of the cliff directly. She ran a few steps to the edge... The settlement was right below, with the water reservoir directly underneath.

So that's it... Cloudy had never really studied the settlement's water reservoir before, but now it seemed to be a natural pool, with the water source coming from certain water flows inside the cliff.

"What are you looking at, Cloudy?" Titus, now warmed up, returned to Cloudy's side and looked down the cliff with her.

In almost an instant, Cloudy had made up her mind: "When it's hot, I'm going to live here!"